I am installing some decking and find that I need to cut many of the boards to length and width. As a DIYer I would be grateful for advice from people more experienced than I. I find that using a handsaw is the fastest way of cutting to length since it takes too long to set up an edge to run my circular saw across. Am I doing something wrong? And how to a cut to width? If I hold the plank flat in my B&D Workmate, the dogs crush the board across its width and so the circular saw jams in the cut. What should I be doing? Thanks in advance for any advice. Davy
circular saws are best for cross cutting (i.e. length), cutting to width requires a jigsaw (or ideally a table saw, not really a DIY item though). Clamp the boards to the top of the workmate with a clamp, then jigsaw them. As for length cuts, can't you lay the boards long and then cut them all at once with your circular saw and a batten? (or you could use a power mitre saw). HTH
If you don't have a mitre saw capable of cutting right across a hand saw will do fine for cross cuts or you can use a circular saw freehand with a bit of practice. You shouldn't have to rip many deck boards down unless you have an odd design.
has your circular saw not got a fence [a "T" shaped bit that slides in the side]!!!!!!! this allowes parralel cutting you shouldnt get binding just use the workmate and a chair or tressle of simmilar height and just keep moving the support and workmate away from the cuting area yo can of course double up [screw the bit your cutting to another but upside down only clamp this bit in the jaws set the saw for 2mm protruding then you won't notice the slot when its turned the right way round big all
Big All, like the idea of screwing the board to a piece of scrap/back of another board and then clamping that scrap/other board between dogs on workmate. Regarding cutting to length, from the replies I can now see that I should have used a circular saw to roughly freehand cut the boards to an inch over length and after installing them cut them all together neatly across a batten. thanks Davie